One Piece at a Time - A True Friend

[Chief5940]

It's been a hot minute since I was last on here, but that doesn't mean that Ron hasn't been busy making a ton of progress. I am WAY behind! So, I'm going to spend the next few hours trying to get us caught up... or very close to it.

There are tons of updates and I can't promise that I have all of this in the exact right order so if you happen to see something on an earlier picture that isn't on a later one, then I obviously got them mixed up.

We cut down the frame to create a short-bed. We went with all-new sheet-metal for the bed, including a new tailgate. We purchased all of the sheet-metal from Southwest Classics in Arlington.

[Chief5940]

The bed was in okay shape right out of the box, but Ron still had to do quite a bit of body work. He welded in patches to cover up the stake-bed pockets.

[Chief5940]

One issue that Ron was disappointed with was the welds on the inside of the bed. He took the time to clean up each one of them and then body-worked and sanded them all smooth. We used some sacrificial hardware to assemble the bed early on and, in the end, switched out almost everything to stainless... you'll have to keep reading to see all of that!

[Chief5940]

Here are a few more pictures of the assembly of the bed.

[Chief5940]

We ended up going back to Mar-K to get the bed cross sills. The parts we bought from them were some of the best quality we found. Ron painted all of them black with frame paint to match the frame.

[Chief5940]

The tailgate is also new. Ron had to work some of his magic to get the fit we wanted. He had to do a little grinding at this stage on one side of the pivot point to get the top of the tailgate to line up with the top of the bed rails. In the end, it looks fantastic!!

[Chief5940]

Once he had the bed assembled, the bed sills painted and installed, and the bed on the truck, it was time to start to layout the final alignment for the trim. We wanted to get this perfect so Ron would know where to break the two-tone paint and also so he could drill the holes. If you have choice over drilling holes and using clips or using tape/3M stick-on clips, go with drilling holes and using real clips! The trim just fits closer to the truck and you won't have to worry about it coming off or the middle of it coming loose.

[Chief5940]

This is a part that I actually got to help with a little bit. The inside door panels turned out great! However, after-market parts just don't fit that great! Ron stayed after these for a while and we finally ended up with something that looks great and we won't be having to constantly fight. If you can find OEM stuff, use it every chance you get!

[Chief5940]

It sure pisses me off when every picture turns side-ways! If you know how to fix that please let me know!!

Next up was to cut and buff the hood! It had a pretty good amount of surface rust on it when Ron started, but he played with a few different processes and finally got down to clean metal. The end product speaks for itself!!!

[Chief5940]

Now I have gone and made the sideways picture Gods mad!!

We got a little help from our old friend and former River Oaks Fire Chief, Dean Throne to put the hood on. Dean just happened to be over checking out the progress and it was cool having an extra set of hands. Ron worked his magic on the alignment and, in the end, we did end up replacing one of the two hood hinges, but it is about as close to perfect as you can get now!

[Chief5940]

Since we bought a lot of the parts for this build from Southwest Classics, when the asked us to bring it out to their show in Carrollton, we decided to take them up on the offer. We trailered the red/white one to the show and Ron drove his blue/white one. It was a little chilly that day, but we had a great time and even won a $100 gift card for more parts! You can't beat that!

[Chief5940]

I apologize to the sideways picture Gods for ever offending you! Please stop!!!

Ron got some help from Skylar on installing the grill. As with everything after-market, it took some gentle persuading. Next up was the bumper. I happened to be in town and was able to get in on this part personally. Thank God for Ron and his ability to just look at something that had like eight different attachment points and know exactly where to shim and where to make adjustments. It went on pretty smooth and he was able to get it perfectly straight! He also installed the new LED blinkers and they worked great as well.

[Chief5940]

Ron got the carpet installed over the Killmat and we gave it a couple of weeks to lay down and get comfortable before installing the console and bucket seats.

[Chief5940]

This is the kind of thing you can only learn from experience. The seatbelts aren't the most generous and I'm kind-of a sturdy-fellow, so Rom built a bracket that bolted through the floor that added a few extra inches of reach on the seat belts. It makes a huge difference. We also decided that if the bolts pull through the floor of the cab I am probably toast anyway!! LOL

[Chief5940]

Way back at the very beginning Ron had welded some washers and nuts to the bottom of the cab specifically for the bucket seats. That made bolting them in a whole lot more straight-forward at this point. We also installed our reconditioned Blazer console (cup holders are very important). It turned out fantastic!

[Chief5940]

We ended up going with the Dakota Digital RTX System -
https://www.dakotadigital.com/index....od/prd1137.htm

It has worked out great so far! The quality is great and the programming has also been very straight-forward. There are still some personalizing type things I need to complete, like picking the colors and deciding what messages I want it to display, but so far I am very pleased with this choice!

[Chief5940]

Ron's grandson, Reid, has been around for this entire process. Everyday that Ron goes out to work on the truck, Reid comes out to hang out, watch, and "help". Reid seems to have taken a liking to the red and white truck; this is especially funny since Ron's (Poppy's) is blue and white. Anyway, this picture was taken one day when they informed Reid that the truck was almost done and would be leaving soon. To say that he didn't take the news too well would be an understatement! This face says it all!

[Chief5940]

We used Old Air Products out of Ft. Worth for the A/C system. It works great! The brackets fit good and after a little wrestling with the serpentine belt we were able to get everything up and running great. Also, the folks at Old Air custom made the hoses to the exact lengths and with the exact ends that Ron needed so they would fit and hide exactly how we wanted them to. The control module looks vintage, but the technology is all modern. I would highly recommend these folks as well.

[Chief5940]

I ordered a set of custom floor mats from Lloyds Mats. The quality is definitely there, but I made a couple of minor mistakes. I upgraded to the red border vinyl border and I will ultimately end up having that replaced with black to match the floor carpeting. This was just one more different shade of red that competes with the other shades that I already have - rookie mistake on my part, but I'm still a huge fan of their products.

[Chief5940]

Every once in a while you have to have five random pictures that you just can't seem to make fit anywhere else - here they are!

We did elect to paint the inner fenders black - I am very pleased with that decision. I wanted more of a stock look and that gets it.

I think I have mentioned the fitment of the shifting linkage vs. the headers before - here is another picture of that - after Ron's modifications.

[Chief5940]

We bought the radio from Southwest Classics along with the Pioneer kick-panel speakers. It looks like the original and fits in the original holes, but it has AM/FM and has the ability to play music off of your phone as well.

Ron ended up building a complete enclosure to fill in the area behind the seat. He installed two more Pioneer speakers and wrapped all of it with carpet that matches the floor of the truck. It turned out perfect and the radio actually sounds really good!

[Chief5940]

I reached out to Jarrod Normandeau to remake my SPID and window sticker. I found his contact information on this forum and he was definitely the right guy for this project. His number is 806-670-1376. If you want to get to this level of detail, Jarrod is the guy. I spent way too much time studying SPIDs from the Janesville, WI., GM plant to get the exact abbreviations they used down. Jarrod was also a wealth of information on this as well. I built a spreadsheet and had him create the SPID and window sticker for the truck as it exists today. Also, I had him show that it was delivered to Estep Chevrolet in Atoka, OK. I have no clue where this truck was originally shipped to or sold from, but that is the dealership in my mom's hometown and one I remembered going to with my aunts and uncles when I was a kid. I thought it was a nice personal touch.

[Chief5940]

Three random things -
1. The trigemini switch controls the radiator fans. One fan comes on when the engine reaches a set temperature. The 2nd fan comes on just a couple of degrees after that, to keep them both from coming on at the exact same time. The third leg of the switch tells them to both come on anytime the A/C comes on.

2. The fuse block is mounted up under the dash, but the main power disconnect is mounted to the inside of the passenger's fender. The whole thing is clean and everything is easily accessible.

3. The pump for the windshield washing fluid was weak, so Ron found a super-charged one! Now we can spray water over the cab. Our last step was to squeeze down the two tubes the windshield washer fluid comes out of so we can actually get it to hit the windshield.

[Chief5940]

The guy we purchased the cab from found this picture of the truck we are building from when he bought it. I may have posted it on here before, but I don't see it. Also, I hadn't posted any pictures of the LED marker lights and night time photos, so I wanted to clear them out as well.

[GSFMECH]

Nice truck